Close Encounter of the Most Dangerous Kind
by LoricFive99
Summary: The Animals have just finished up on rescuing the VIP from the Federal Emergency Bunker. The day has come to an end though, and as night falls upon the city, more dangerous threats lurk around each corner of the city. If it's at night that predators come out to hunt, then Christopher Cage and his fellow agents have become prey to the most dangerous kind of predator; a Hunter...
1. The Crimson

It had only been 2 weeks since Agent Christopher Cage and his "Animals", as they had taken to calling themselves, arrived in Washington, D.C. following the SHD distress signal sent out from the White House. In just 2 weeks, the Outcasts had been almost liquidated, save for the big bad wolf herself, Emeline Shaw, an asymptomatic carrier of the virus. She was all that stood in the way of the defeat of an organized Outcast threat. The Animals were making quick work of all of her forces. But as is the norm of the post-outbreak world, when one problem is solved, another always seems to rise up and take its place.

After rescuing a JTF person of interest from the Federal Emergency Bunker in the northwestern part of the city, the Animals were on there way back to the rendezvous point at the Lincoln Memorial. It was getting late, as the sun had already set and the denizens of the night started roaming about. One thing that Cage and his men could all agree on was that they didn't want to be anywhere near any sewer entrances. The Underground, as everybody had taken to calling them, were a frightening bunch. Rumors swirled around that they were even cannibals!

After having heard that particular thing about those who dwelled below, Cage and his men made sure to shoot on sight. They were a nasty bunch of savages after all. As if the absence of their morality wasn't bad enough, their smell was just downright intoxicating. The only pro to that massive con was that whenever the smell was picked up, it proved that the Underground was nearby.

However, fate would have it that the men didn't smell them quick enough, because before they all knew it, they had been flanked and tackled by a large group of the bastards. They were sorely outnumbered, and Cage knew it. He looked at his men, James, Jared, and Cody; he had failed them terribly. He only hoped that for all of their sakes, their death would be a quick one. As they were being held down and restrained, a huge brute of a man with a chain saw came forward slowly, moving in and most likely savoring the moment. Judging from the splatter of blood all over his attire, this was not an uncommon thing that he did.

Just as he began to rev up his chain saw and move in on James, a nearby flash followed by a loud bang took out the street light above them, blanketing the surrounding area in complete darkness. Then, one of the Underground let out a pained grunt, followed by an example. A sound that only resembled flesh being torn into followed after that, and Christopher could just barely make out what appeared to be the shape of a human head rolling on the ground, the body it was attached to slumped over the metal carcass of a suburban. Noting that their captors were distracted by this new enemy, Cage took advantage of the situation, ripped one of his hands free, grabbing for his sidearm, and blew a tangerine sized hole through the head of one of the savages.

The hulking brute with the chain saw forgot about James and advanced on a figure clad in black armor, his weapon raised. The chain saw came into contact with something- wait was that an axe? The shower of sparks that followed the two weapons clashing gave the Division agents a brief glimpse at who their supposed savior was, and they immediately became even more frightened of the situation. Standing before them was a figure clad in black armor, wearing a ballistic mask with a pair of night vision goggles and a large x across the front of it.

Emanating only a grunt, the figure parried the chain saw, kicked it out of his assailant's grasp, then proceeded to bring his axe down upon the brute's neck, severing his head from his body. The brute fell with a large thud and all other Underground who weren't already fleeing from the scene left after the big guy was eliminated. The large figure then turned towards the group of agents, axe at his side, dripping fresh blood. As he turned towards him, a bunch of orange lights lit up along his chest and shoulders, revealing what could only be agent wristwatches.

"High-threat hostile, in proximity," ISAC rang throughout the agents' earpieces. Cage finally realized who they were up against. This was one of the infamous Hunters, a group of homicidal Division agent killers. Nobody knew who these guys were, except for the fact that they were a dangerous bunch of elite killers. James, being the voice of reason in this moment, chose to say, "Oh shit, run!" Needless to say, the whole team didn't need to be told twice, as they took off, with their predator closing in on them. Cody tried to set up his flame turret, only for it to be shut down in a blaze of sparks; the Hunter had sabotaged the SHD signal. Whatever tools they had at their disposal, this Hunter had made sure to eliminate all of the threats posed to him.

With it being dark, visibility was low, and as the team opened fire, their shots were quickly evaded by the Hunter. Jared brought out his LMG and lit up the alley way, but by then it was too late; the Hunter had ran in a zig-zag pattern, swinging his axe down upon the LMG once he was within swinging range. The force of the blow had not only knocked the gun out of Jared's hands, but had also knocked him to the ground. The Hunter then brought a foot down on his chest, quickly knocking the air out of him. He then proceeded to turn around and shoot Cody in the leg with his rifle. James picked this moment to rush him, only for his jab forward with his machete to be sidestepped by the Hunter; the man brought the pommel of the weapon upon the back of James' head, knocking him out cold.

He then turned back to Jared, preparing to bring the axe down whenever he realized that there were four agents and he had only disarmed three. Just as the axe was coming down, Christopher had picked up James' machete, bringing it up in a upward slice that completely severed the hand which had the axe in it. Roaring in pain, the hunter took a knee, clutching the bloody stump that used to be his hand. Taking advantage of the situation, Christopher quickly picked up the Hunter's axe, and in one quick motion, sliced the machete and axe in an x-like motion, decapitating the Hunter.

Coming down from the adrenaline high, Christopher dropped both weapons and rushed towards Cody, who had already begun to wrap his wounded up with the gauze and bandages that he'd had in his pack. Jared was beginning to get up from his position on the ground, having finally caught his breath again, then rushed over to James, who was still out. The man had probably sustained a concussion in his attempt to rush the hunter, as he'd been hit right on the back of his head with the pommel of the axe.

Being fortunate that he could still walk a little bit on his leg, Cody used a nearby branch broken off from a tree as a form of support for him to walk with, whereas Christopher and Jared helped carry James between the two of them. They moved inside to a nearby office building, going up the stairs and getting on the rooftops. It was once they got to the roof that they realized James had not only sustained a head injury but was bleeding from it.

Cody went into medic mode, applying gauze and bandages to the wound to keep it from bleeding further. Odds are, the pommel of the axe had a skull crusher on the bottom of it, and that was what caused the severe injury. Jared then radioed back to the Base of Operations that a medevac was needed for a Division agent, and that the extraction sight would be north of the Lincoln Memorial, marked with green flares.

Within 20 minutes, the rooftop they were on had multiple green flares on it, marking their location to the approaching chopper. Once on board, Christopher couldn't help but feel a deep sense of fear in the pit of his stomach. That was just one Hunter, one man that not only easily dispatched a group of Underground savages but managed to disarm and nearly eliminate an entire group of Division agents. How many more of those guys could there possibly be in this city?

He would find out soon enough. For now though, he just wanted to get his team back to the White House, get rested up, and be prepared for whatever it was that the next day would bring.


	2. The Demon

_**A/N: Hey guys, I figured that I would make things a bit more intense on this one. I'm planning to base this story off of the 12 Hunters found in game, and the Stinger Hunter, who I'll be saving for last. Besides, you can't have a hero of a story without a villain. :D**_

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-THREE WEEKS LATER-

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Agent Cage sat down at the table in the conference room at the White House. Sitting at the table with him were Agents Ferrer, Revots, Price, Kelso, along with another four-man squad of Agents, one of whom was an Agent from New York. He in particular was brought in for the situation that was at hand. In the middle of the table were three items of interest. One was a collection of SHD wristwatches. The second item was an axe, dried-up blood rimmed along its edge. The last item on the table was what sent shivers up the spine of the New York Agent, a man by the name of Edwards.

Agent Edwards had encountered this particular type of enemy once, in New York's Dark Zone during one of the worst blizzards on record. The file containing his report on the mission, simply titled "SHD: NYC Survival", told the story of three particular enemies that hunted down the other five agents that were with him on the helicopter whenever it crashed. Agent Edwards spoke up after inspecting the items on the table.

"This mask looks exactly like the one worn by the son of a bitch that killed Thompson. Only difference is that he must've painted that crimson x on it at some point between my encounter with him and your encounter with him. Whenever I fought against him at the extraction point, he also had two red wristwatches, indicating that he had killed two rogue agents. I think it's safe to assume that these guys have come back, and now that you've killed one of them, they're all gonna have their eyes on you. Were you able to identify the corpse?"

Agent Cage shook his head in a 'no' like manner. "We ran everything we could on this guy through ISAC and every other system at our disposal. He didn't show up once in any of the records. It's like he just came out of nowhere. He took down a behemoth of a man in just five seconds, and then was ready to make quick work out of us. Hell, if it hadn't been for the fact that Agent Price was about to receive the business end of his axe, I never would have gotten the drop on him like I did. If this was indeed the same Hunter that killed several Agents in New York, then it's only by pure luck that we managed to survive our encounter with the guy."

Agent Ferrer rubbed the bridge of his nose where his glasses usually rested. "Ok in your report, you said that there were three. If we killed one of them, here in D.C., then does that mean we're most likely going to encounter the other two that you encountered in New York? Because I don't know about the rest of you guys, but we had our asses kicked big time. Well, except for Cage over there. I barely remember the whole thing because I got my brain bucket tapped real hard."

There were a few chuckles around the table at that comment. Kelso spoke up finally, saying, "Ok, so tell me Edwards, these guys showed up in New York trying to kill you, why would they show up here in D.C.? Do you think that they're personally targeting you? Or do you think that anyone with an orange wristwatch is fair game?" Edwards shifted uncomfortably in his seat, contemplating that question before he finally answered.

"I think that they might be after me. But I know for certain that we're all fair game to them. Whenever I saw them kill Jenkins and Devok, it was as if it were personal. They're nothing short of homicidal whenever they see an Agent. I think it's safe to say that there is only one reason why they've showed up in D.C. after all this time."

"And why is that?" asked Price.

"Because whenever the SHD distress signal went out, a whole swarm of Agents came to one central location. Think about it. These Hunters have an almost unlimited supply of prey to rack up some wristwatch trophies on. And they know that we're here to protect the civilians, so odds are they're going to bait us with any civilian that isn't where they're supposed to be."

The room lapsed into complete silence at that remark. Nobody had stopped to think that while yes, the Hunters are completely homicidal against Agents of the Division, and that yes, they would absolutely use innocents as the perfect bait to draw them out. These men were brutal, vicious and savage to the core. Nobody would put it past them to do such a thing.

"Alright, I think we've gotten enough intel for one day. Let's meet up again here tomorrow, shall we? Agent Edwards, you and your guys go ahead and head back to the theatre settlement, we'll make sure to meet you guys there tomorrow," Cage said, concluding the meeting. It was late afternoon, almost evening. He knew damn good and well that he didn't want any fellow Agents walking about out late at night. Not after what all they've encountered.

Everybody stood up, shook hands, bid farewell and went about their separate ways. Agent Kelso remained in the room with Agent Cage, lingering behind for a moment. "Something I can help you with Kelso?" he asked. "Yeah, I need your opinion on something. Call me suspicious, but did it seem like Edwards was holding back information? I couldn't help but get that vibe from him." Kelso was usually good at reading people, so if she suspects something was up with Edwards, then Cage knew better than to disregard it.

"I'll have him followed, take one of drones that Ferrer's been tinkering with, hook it up with some surveillance equipment. He could get that to you ASAP." Kelso grinned at that. "What?" Cage asked. She responded, "Ferrer seems to have a slight obsession with SHD tech doesn't he?" Cage chuckled, saying, "Yeah, he does. And for that, I'm grateful. The man can cleared a whole floor of True Sons assholes with just two cluster seeker mines. He's efficient with his stuff, no doubt about it."

"Good to know. I'll seek him out right away then."

-SEVERAL HOURS LATER-

The surveillance drone watched carefully over Agent Edwards and his squad of Agents, making sure to also stay out of sight from them as well. Honing in on the comms frequency, Ferrer was able to listen to what Edwards and his men were talking about. Hovering behind Ferrer were Kelso and Cage, eager to see what it was that their friend had to say.

"I'm just saying Edwards, you shouldn't have held back the information on the others. We all know that it's not just those three you encountered back in New York. Why didn't you tell Cage and his guys? I mean from Christ's sake man, they killed the one who killed some of your guys-"

He was suddenly cut off whenever Edwards reached out, gripped his shirt and pulled him within an inch of his face. "What I choose to tell them is my damn business, not yours."

"Well I hate to break it to you Eddy, but your business could very well affect your teammates. So grow a pair and tell them first thing tomorrow morning at the next meeting," said one of the Agents. This only earned an angry grunt from Edwards. As they closed in on a nearby control point, the feed from the drone started to go fuzzy, before becoming full-on static. "I'm losing control of it!" exclaimed Ferrer.

The drone did several spiral motions before crashing into the side of one of the nearby buildings. About 30 minutes after the feed was lost, a transmission went out over the frequency that Edwards had been on. "This is Agent Andrew Edwards. I'm at an abandoned control point near the Theatre settlement. I'm gonna go check it out. Wouldn't say no to some back up." Cage had already been geared up and ready to go, so he just grabbed his weapons and walked on out. As Ferrer and Revots were already knocked out in their beds, Price accompanied him.

It only took an hour walk to arrive at the area where Edwards sent out his last transmission. Just as Cage and Price were about to move into the building, they both heard a disturbance, turning and aiming their guns in the direction of the noise. "Wait just a second fellas," said a voice stepping out from behind the cover. It was one of the Agents from the meeting today, Rogers. Another figure stepped out from behind and into the dim lighting of the area, revealing himself to be another Agent from earlier that day, Williams.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you guys also picked up Edwards' transmission?" Rogers nodded in response. "Yeah that was what we showed up to investigate. Not like the man to just go on alone without telling anybody where he was going." They moved into the building, hearing a ping over their ISAC frequencies that sounded a lot like a distress signal. "SHD distress beacon detected nearby," the system said. "That doesn't sound good," Williams said.

After having to climb up an elevator shaft, the four man group of Agents moved throughout the dark corridor. It was at this point and time that two things happened. One, the pinging got much louder in their earpieces. And two, after setting foot in the dark corridor and moving towards the huge shape caught up in the-

Wait a second, was that a person?

They all soon got their answers when the lights were suddenly flipped on, revealing a bloodied, battered, and very much dead Agent Andrew Edwards hanging from the monstrosity of wiring that were strung around his neck, arms, torso, and pretty much everything else that something like wire could wrap itself around. A smoke grenade exploded, along with a small energy pulse that disrupted the Agents' SHD tech.

What emerged from the smoke screen frightened every Agent in the room; another Hunter. And it seemed he had just added another trophy to his collection.

Rogers yelled out in anger, firing his rifle at the armor-clad figure, only for the Hunter to drop by the table. Despite the lights being on in the main room, it was still very dark in the hallway, and the Hunter used that to his advantage. Running at full speed, the Hunter tackled Williams, and during the process, whipped out his combat knife, slicing it in clean cut across Williams' throat. He'd bled out within a minute. Rogers witnessed another of his friends die at the hands of this monster and rushed recklessly at the man. Cage and Price tried to stop him, but it was too late.

The Hunter looked up, and in a very nonchalant manner, pulled out his Diceros Special sidearm, and fired three shots at Rogers, all three hitting their respective marks. Rogers was dead before he hit the floor. During the time that the Hunter had pulled out his sidearm to kill the enraged Agent, Cage and Price had taken cover by a vending machine and a pillar. Cage then opened fire, pouring his entire magazine into the spot where the Hunter had been and where he was moving to, but each shot seemed to land just shy of its mark.

Price was about to lay down covering fire so that Cage could rush the Hunter with his shotgun and kill him. However, just as Cage moved from behind cover and Price moved to lay down covering fire, a grenade landed right between the two men, detonating and unleashing a large amount of electricity that stunned both Agents. The Hunter then moved towards the two dead Agents he'd just killed, taking their wristwatches, then stepped up to Cage, who was still being shocked, and just waved his hands towards him in a mockingly dismissive manner. He then turned around and ran towards the nearest exit, but not before Price pushed through the pain, reached for his D50, and landed a shot in the back of one of his legs.

The Hunter yelped out in surprise and pain, but still got away. The moment he left the room, the shocking stopped and both Agents dropped to the floor, out of breath and almost beat. But Cage got up, helped pull Price to his feet, and said, "We'll have to come back for them later. Right now, we've gotta go after that son of a bitch." And without another word, both men ran towards the door that the Hunter had exited through.

Noticing the little spots of blood on the floor, Price followed the trail towards an open courtyard and around a stone pillar, which almost cost him his life. The Hunter had been waiting behind the pillar and moved in with his axe to claim another trophy. Dodging the blow cost Price his balance, and he was crawling away as fast as he could from the enemy that stalked him. Cage finally caught up with him at the right moment, as he tackled their foe. Caught off guard, the Hunter lost the upper hand for a few seconds, taking some well placed hits to the ribs, neck, and a resounding crack from the collarbone, all of which earned pained grunts. But the Hunter was able to get the upper hand with his knife, leaving a deep gash in Cage's arm. Stunned and suddenly overwhelmed with the pain, Cage was wide open to a direct hit from the Hunter's axe. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see the hit that would surely end his life.

Only that hit never came. What did come about, however, was a loud blast, the echo that followed it, and the thud of a body. Cage opened his eyes to see the corpse of the Hunter on the ground, Price holding his D50 that had been knocked out of his hands during the fight. Its barrel still smoking, Price got up from his prone position and emptied the rest of the pistol's magazine into the body of the defeated enemy. Price then looked over at Cage, helped him up, and both men then walked over to investigate the body of this particular Hunter. There would probably be no identifying this man, as there was a massive hole the size of a grapefruit towards where the temple of his head would have been. The ballistic mask was mostly undamaged, save for the blood splattered up inside of it. Upon closer inspection, the white emblem scratched into the mask resembled a distorted SHD phoenix, yet with the eye holes, it looked more like a demonic being smiling.

Cage bent down and ripped the mask off from the remnants of the face of their assailant. After grabbing the mask, he then grabbed his fallen Agents' wristwatches. This was not going to bode well back at the Base of Operations. Not. One. Bit. Least he could do was make sure his fellow Agents' bodies were brought back and given a proper burial, Edwards especially.

Of course, one question rang throughout Cage's mind now. What was it that Edwards had kept to himself that got him captured, tortured, and brutally murdered? Because judging from the severe gashes and wounds left on Edwards' body, the man was tortured for information. Cage shook his head in disbelief. Things were bad enough in this city with the True Sons, Hyenas, and Outcasts. Now these Hunters were copy-catting the Predator, claiming trophies and hunting Division Agents for sport. But Cage did take solace in one little factoid that both nefarious beings had in common.

If it can bleed, it can be killed. And boy oh boy, did Cage wanna see to it that each and every Hunter was killed. He swore his life on it. No other Agent was going to fall to the hands of these monsters, not if he could do anything about it.


	3. The Wraith

**Hey guys, I apologize for such a long wait. I was gone for the entire month of March for an Army Training Exercise, and whenever I got back, this whole COVID-19 outbreak had turned into a pandemic. Seeing as how my job is shutdown for now, that gives me more time to write on here. I figured I'd make this chapter extra long to make up for lost time. Enjoy!**

Agents Price and Agent Cage didn't get that much sleep for the next couple of days. Cage was plagued with nightmares, only in these cases, he was the Hunter, he had killed all of those Agents, and Price shot him. Needless to say, he didn't really feel like he was up for much of anything, unless it involved the Hunters. Apparently, a figure matching the description of a Hunter was spotted outside of the Washington Monument, and another half a klick to the west near the end of the Reflecting Pool.

Cage and Price both realized though that there were currently bigger fish to fry. President Ellis had been successfully recovered by a group of heavy-hitter Division Agents. Cage had seen some impressive feats in his lifetime beforehand, but these guys kept their enemy pinned down until they nailed their asses with their specialization weapons. Of that particular crew was a gunner, a technician, a demolitionist, and "firewall" as he had taken to calling himself. This particular Agent was originally one of the Second Wave Agents from New York, so he picked up a flamethrower that belonged to the Cleaners, and then decided to put it to good use.

Needless to say, every Hyena in the building was killed, reduced to charred carcasses or now decaying carcasses riddled with bullet holes. What came down the wire, though, was the top priority, passed down from the President himself; the True Sons had recovered his briefcase from the wreckage of Air Force One, and decided to take up residency in the Capitol. Ellis said that he wanted, "the best", and apparently, it would just so happen to be that Agent Cage was one of "the best". I guess that happens whenever you and your team kill not just one, but two Hunters. Cage figured he'd stick it to those bastards. So much so that he took to carrying around the axe of the Hunter that was killed by Price. Price got to keep the mask. It was a fair trade-off, if one can even call it that.

Cage was assigned with three other Agents from around the city, and it seemed that it was all or nothing on this mission. Agents Johnson, Dunne, and Ward were assigned alongside Agent Cage. All three were hardened in their war against the True Sons, which was why they had been picked for the mission. They were given the choice of picking the fourth man, so once they heard about the Agent who killed a Hunter with their own axe, the clear and obvious choice was Cage.

Needless to say, it was about to be a day of reckoning for the True Sons and their leader, General Anton Ridgeway.

The mission, while it was successful, was a disaster. Agent Ward was killed in an RPG attack by one of Ridgeway's Lieutenants, and Agent Dunne lost sight in one of his eyes after he got riot foam in it, and Johnson was lucky enough to only suffer a broken left wrist at the hands of a True Sons Juggernaut. Cage was the only man to come out unscathed, save for a couple of scrapes, cuts, and bruises. The man was frightened by what actions he could commit against the enemy once the lives of his teammates were on the line.

For one, the True Sons Juggernaut who broke Johnson's wrist was quite literally _cut down _by Cage, who used the Hunter axe on him; first by striking his calf muscle, then by kicking him over and bringing the blade down upon the back of his neck. His head rolled towards some of the True Sons who were behind cover. After that particular firefight, the final battle came on the steps of the Capitol Building. Ridgeway finally showed up, bringing his all to the fight. And it almost was too much for the Agents of the Division.

Almost.

Cage decided he'd take a page from Ferrer's book, using the one cluster seeker mine that he had borrowed from his friend, labeled "Russian Doll Protocol". After letting it loose, it went into 13 different parts, each going after their individual target. While all of the others detonated and killed their respective targets, Ridgeway was the only one who did not get killed by the blast meant for him. He limped away, heading for a saferoom, but at the last second, Dunne, using his remaining eye, sighted him in with his TAC 50. Cal rifle and blew one of his legs clean off.

The man howled in pain as the three remaining Agents walked up to him. Cage gripped his axe, prepared to bring it down on the traitorous bastard, but he had a second thought. Giving the hatchet to Agent Johnson, Johnson looked at him confused. Cage then said, "The honors are all yours." Johnson nodded, saying, "With pleasure." He then stepped forward, axe raised, and yelled, "This is for Ward!" and brought the weapon down upon General Ridgeway's head, busting his head open like a watermelon hitting the concrete fast and hard; it had about the same effect too, causing a bit of a splatter.

Agent Dunne then radioed to the Base of Operations, "Manny, this is Dunne. We lost Ward and we've all sustained some injuries, but General Ridgeway has been neutralized." Manny responded back immediately, "Copy that Agent. We'll send in a recovery team immediately via helicopter. Pop a flare to signal your location."

Dunne shot the flare up into the sky, and within 15 minutes, the helicopter arrived, picking up the Agents and their fallen comrade.

Evening came, along with a burial for their fallen ally, Ward. Words were said, good times were mentioned. Ward didn't have anybody. His wife and children perished in the Green Poison pandemic. Cage didn't know him that well, and he attended more out of respect and having fought alongside him in his final mission. All he knew was that he had lost a brother-in-arms to the chaos of the city.

After the service was done, Cage was called into the Tactical Operations Center. Manny and Agent Kelso were the only ones there. There was a lead on a Hunter sighting on Interstate 395 BN, near a memorial. Agent Kelso was going to tag along with Cage on this one. Cage tried to talk her out of it, and he finally managed to convince her to just let him handle it.

After an hour-long hike to the suspected area, Cage arrived on the scene of a bloodbath. Whoever it was that had spotted the Hunter had clearly forgotten to mention that there was quite the throwdown in the area. There were at least a dozen bodies, all of them True Sons, save for one body, burnt to a crisp; it was the sole difference out of all the corpses, mangled and bullet riddled. The only distinguishable feature on this particular body was the remnants of the agent backpack that still clung to the corpse.

The problem, however, was not the fact that there was an unidentified Division Agent that was down. No, the problem was that there was a former Rogue Division Agent that lay dead before him. Even damaged, the ring on the backpack glowed an ominous red.

Cage felt a chill go down his spine. He had only encountered Rogue Agents twice, only in the Dark Zone. Seeing that this one was here meant A) they had decided to explore the inner parts of D.C. more and B) they had probably been eliminated by the Hunter. The latter was confirmed whenever a large man walked out from behind one of the corners, axe in one hand and pistol in the other. Cage immediately brought out his sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, which he nicknamed the Firestarter, and leveled it center mass towards the enemy.

The Hunter stepped forward, then stopped whenever he was about 10 feet away from Cage. Both men knew that a brawl was inevitable, but the Hunter did something surprising. He dropped both of his weapons, grabbed one of the backpacks off of a dead True Son, then used it as a improvised stool. "Perhaps we should talk," the Hunter said, albeit slightly muffled as he was speaking from behind a mask.

"Yeah, like I wanna talk to one of the guys who make trophies out of our watches," replied Cage. What did this guy take him for, a dumbass? He wasn't gonna fall for any kind of civilized conversation ploy. "What do you want?" he asked him straight-forward.

"What I want is the same thing you want Agent. I want a better world. And in doing so, I must pull out the weeds that infest my garden I'm tending." He put the pistol away but still kept the axe out. His grip tightened on it. "It seems we've reached a stalemate." He then stepped closer towards Cage, who took a step back away from the man.

The Hunter then pulled something out from behind him and bent quickly to strike it across the pavement – it was a flare. Holding it above his head with one hand while still holding his axe in the other, the details of Cage's adversary were now on full display. The mask he wore bore several white stripes along the dark surface of the ballistic headgear; it was as if Cage was looking at a Wraith, a malevolent and ancient being. However, this was very real, and Cage knew that things could instantly go from on edge to knife-at-each-other's-throat, so it was best not to get sidetracked.

"The question is, how are we to solve this dilemma we find ourselves in?" He tossed the flare at Cage, who was anticipating a first strike, and dodged the white hot stick of magnesium. The Hunter lurched forward, bringing the axe around, but Cage had acted faster; his shotgun, no longer leveled at the enemy's chest, was instead aimed right at one of the kneecaps of the man. Without hesitation, Cage pulled the trigger, pumping buckshot into the man's right kneecap at a high velocity; it was a wonder that the force of the blast didn't separate the upper leg from the lower leg.

Howling in pain, the Hunter dropped the axe, immediately clutching onto his now-injured leg. Cage was surprised at how quickly he dispatched his adversary; for an enemy as notorious amongst fellow Division Agents, he fell and bled like any other man. Cage moved forward, and reaching down, grabbed ahold of the Hunter by his neck brace and began shaking him violently.

"What is your purpose here in Washington, D.C.?! I've already seen the handywork of two others like yourself, pretending to be the fucking Predator and collecting trophies off of the bodies of my fellow Agents. I wanna know why you're here, and I wanna know now!" Cage spat out. The Hunter, through his moans of agony, was able to emit a dry laugh.

"Fine. I know you're being honest because we've been watching you Agent. We saw you at the Capitol. We saw you cut down those miserable wastes of humanity at the District Union Arena. And I myself saw you in action against one of my brethren. So I'll grant you this; we're after someone of high notoriety. Someone who truly proved to my commanders why it is that the Division is doomed to fail."

"What? What are you talking about? There isn't anyone who-"

"Oh yes there is! HE'S the one who caused your organization's plan of saving what remained to fall through! HE'S the one that killed other Agents before my bunch made a sport out of it! HE'S THE ONE THAT FIRST WENT ROGUE!"

Silence followed after the Hunter's outburst. Cage now knew who it was that his enemy was talking about. There was only one man who could possibly fit the description. But nobody has heard or seen anything of him since he took off with the Russian scientist 7 months back. He reached forward and ripped off the mask from the Hunter. Before him was a very pained man, bald, five o' clock shadow, and probably late 30s from the looks of it.

"What do you know about Aaron Keener, and why is it that you're trying to find him, aside from him being a dead man walking?" Cage asked. The Hunter looked him right in the eye and said, "We want him because of the virus printer. He has everything that Amherst used to make the disease to begin with. We need to get out hands on it-" without warning a bang resounded and the right side of the Hunter's head was suddenly missing, as if someone had taken a bite out of an apple. Cage looked up towards where he heard the shot to come from, only to see something that frightened him just as much as the sight of a Hunter did.

There, about 20 feet in front of him, was a Division Agent. But his ring was the welcoming and friendly orange that he was used to seeing back at the White House.

This Agent's watch and gear was marked by **red rings.**


End file.
